


The True and the Loyal Vessel

by coplins, YouCantKeepMeDown



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Lucifer's Cage, M/M, Nick is loyal to Lucifer, Post-Season/Series 05 Finale, people get hurt though, there is a very fluffy second chapter now, there is no actual torture in the cage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-30
Updated: 2017-08-31
Packaged: 2018-12-21 20:36:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11952144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coplins/pseuds/coplins, https://archiveofourown.org/users/YouCantKeepMeDown/pseuds/YouCantKeepMeDown
Summary: When Nick hears that Lucifer is back in the cage again he tries everything he can to get to his favorite archangel.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was inspired by this [wonderful piece of art](http://mashuradi.tumblr.com/post/163942592606/nicky-dear-i-love-you-i-did-this-while).
> 
> Edit: There is a second chapter now, because I have wonderful friends.

If you say yes to Satan taking over your body to destroy the world, it’s probably no surprise, if you end up in hell after you die. Still, Nick is a bit offended, when they hang him on the racks like everyone else. “I kind of hoped for a VIP suit, you know?” he tells the demon who does it.

The demon gives a smile that holds no humor and carries on with his work.

There is no torture, though. They just let him wait. Or maybe that is his torture, because it gives him time to think about what he had and what he doesn’t have any more. Lucifer’s cold grace curled up against his soul. Like being chained to a comet, breathtaking and beautiful. It almost burned him up, but still he wants it back.  
Nick remembers the archangel chuckle in his head, when he showed him what the world looked like from the perspective of an immortal being. When Nick had realized how insignificant his own suffering was. When he had left it behind to just be and experience and bask in the glory that is creation.

There is a faint hope that when everything is over Lucifer will return to him. Of course he has his true vessel now – and Nick can’t be jealous of Sam after he has seen him through the archangel’s eyes, after he has felt the love Lucifer holds for him, after he has shared that love – but he kind of hopes that Lucifer will remember him, take him off the rack, grace him with his presence now and then. He doesn’t want to believe that after God has forsaken him the devil has, too.  
But Lucifer doesn’t come and Nick tries not to get bitter, but –

Then he hears the news. Sam has accomplished the impossible. Lucifer is back in the cage again. And Nick has seen memories of the cage, too, when they were joined, and his heart breaks, when he remembers the loneliness, the darkness, the cold and the silent rage. The despair that had only been held at bay, because Lucifer had known, one day Sam Winchester would come and free him. Now Sam Winchester is down there with him. There is no hope any more.

“What do I have to do to get thrown into the cage?” Nick asks one of the demons, who pass by.

The demon stops and looks at him like he can’t quite believe what he just heard. “You want to be thrown in the most terrible prison in the deepest depth of hell?”

Nick smiles. “You know, I have a friend down there. I kind of miss him.”

The demon hesitates for a moment, then he steps closer. “I know who you are,” he whispers. “And that’s the only reason I’m even considering this. I can get you in. But no one can ever get you out again.”

Again, Nick smiles. “It’s not like I have any other plans.”

* * *

Sam doesn’t know how long he’s been down here. He only knows that this prison was intended for one archangel. Now there are two of them, fighting for what feels like an eternity by now. Michael seems convinced, if he can finish this, if he can kill his brother, God will come and get him out and everything will be well again. Well, except for the fact that he killed his brother. And Sam thinks that thought is the only reason none of them has won yet. None of them really wants to be the one who killed the other.

So Sam can do nothing but wait, wait for it to be over, curled around his own brother in a corner of the cage. Razor sharp archangel wings slice his back and grace burns his skin, because there’s just not enough space to get far enough away from this fight. But at least Adam is mostly safe. Poor Adam.

Then Lucifer falls, his blade clattering to the floor. Sam risks a glance and he sees Michael towering over his brother, angel blade ready for the final blow. Sam isn’t sure why between all the relief about it being over soon he feels sorrow, too.

Suddenly another figure is there. For a moment Sam thinks it’s a trick just like the ones Gabriel likes so much, because Lucifer seems to be there twice now. He has assumed Nick’s form as soon as he’s been forced out of Sam’s body by the fall, and the second Nick picks up Lucifer’s archangel blade and points it at Michael. “Don’t you dare hurt him!”

Michael looks at him in puzzlement for a second. “Step aside, human. I have no intention of hurting you, but I will, if you don’t leave me any choice.”

Lucifer groans, pushes himself up again. “Nick,” he says. “Step aside. You’ve done enough for me.”

So this is Nick? Slowly Sam gets up, too, not sure what to do, but feeling like he has to do something.

The blond man shakes his head. “No.” Then his resolve falters a bit, though. “Please. He still loves you. Please! What kind of father forces his sons to kill each other? This won’t make it better.”

“Nick!” Lucifer’s voice sounds a bit sharper now, but Nick doesn’t takes his eyes from Michael for one second. And before he can even think about it, Sam steps forward and stands next to Nick, putting himself between the two archangels. Distantly he notices that he leaves a bloody trail on the floor from the wounds he got from just trying to stay out of this fight. If this goes wrong, they’ll all be dead, but at least that way it’ll finally be over, too. “He’s right. It’s enough. He’s your brother and you don’t have to do this. We tore the pages out of the book anyway. There’s no great plan anymore. You have a choice.”

For a moment, Michael just stands there, angel blade ready to strike. And suddenly Sam feels cold metal press against his palm. When he glances in Nick’s direction, the blond man is trying to hand him Lucifer’s blade. “Here. I have no idea what to do with this anyway.”

“You stepped between two angry archangels and you don’t even know how to fight?” Sam takes the blade, feels the cold metal hum against his skin with an echo of Lucifer’s grace, sees Michael’s eyes – his father’s eyes technically, because Michael is in John Winchester’s form – follow his every move.

Nick shrugs. “He showed me beauty, when I thought there was nothing left worth living for anymore. And he’s the only good thing I’ve left now.”

Maybe Sam is imaging it, but Michael’s expression gets a bit softer at that. He doesn’t lower his weapon, though. Sam tightens his grip on the archangel blade, waits for an attack. He tries to tell himself that he’s defending Nick, poor Nick, whose life had been turned on it’s head, because Sam had said no. But there’s also that part of him that remembers what it feels like to share a body with Lucifer, to feel whole for the first time in his life. And they’re in the cage now, no one will get hurt by him giving in to the pull he feels since that day in the chapel, where Lilith has died.

There’s movement behind Sam. Lucifer’s presence makes his skin prickle and the hairs on the back of his neck stand up, but Sam doesn’t turn, he keeps watching his opponent. Then there’s an icy cold hand on his shoulder and the shadows of wings furl around Sam and Nick, shielding them from Michael.

“I don’t want to fight you, Michael,” Lucifer says. “I never wanted to kill you. But if you hurt my vessels, you’re dead.”

Finally, Michael takes a step back. “So you care about humans now.”

“Those two are mine.”

It’s not an answer, but Michael’s archangel blade clatters to the floor. “You idiot,” he mutters. “You had to fall into this wretched pit twice, before you started to do what he asked you to.” And just like that, he retreats into the farthest corner of the cage.

“I don’t love them!” Lucifer calls after his brother, but it doesn’t sound very convincing even to Sam.

Finally, Sam turns. He holds Lucifer’s blade out to him, hilt first. A peace offering. Lucifer takes his weapon back with a slight smile on his face. Then there is a cold hand on Sam’s forehead, and the pain in his back subsides.

“So you did what I asked of you after all?” Nick says after a while.

Lucifer just shrugs and turns away.

Sam looks from one to the other. “What did you ask him to do?”

Nick grins. “To let you win. You don’t think you can win a mind wrestling match against an archangel, if he doesn’t want you to, do you?”

Sam gapes. That can’t be true, can it? On the other hand he had thought the same thing before. That all it had taken was calming Lucifer’s rage after Michael had called him a freak, and then it had been surprisingly easy.

“Don’t get any ideas.” Lucifer folds his arms in front of his chest. “I still think humanity is a crawling pile of cockroaches and I’m happy about every single one of them I got to take out, while I was topside. But what kind of revenge would it have been, if I had followed Father’s plan? He wanted Michael and me to fight after all.”

And Sam has to admit, that makes sense. In a way.

“Great,” comes a voice from where Adam is still more or less curled up. “Just great. That’s exactly the kind of company I wanted to spend the rest of eternity in.”  
Lucifer shoots him a smile that’s more a show of teeth. “Be grateful I don’t touch Michael’s stuff, little one.”

“You better not!” Michael calls from his corner.

Sam sighs. At least they’re not fighting any more now. And maybe, if they give this a few thousand years, they can work something out that’s more than a very brittle peace. Maybe their stay down here doesn’t have to be absolute hell.

He looks at Nick and gets a reassuring smile from the blond man. Or not hell at all.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A few hundred years later there is a cuddle pile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The very wonderful coplins left a comment that makes a perfect ending for this story and I wanted to show it to you all, because I love it so much. Let's assume it took quite a while for them to get there and therefore Sam was never rescued.

"You're a monster," Michael mutters and burrows his nose in Lucifer's hair, closing his eyes and dragging Lucifer closer to his body.

"Self-righteous dick," Lucifer counters and tucks his head in under Michael's chin, curling his wings under Michael's, creating a protective wall around them.

Caught in the middle of the angelic embrace are the three humans. Nick's lips curve into a smile, hidden behind Sam's back. He'd lost a family once. He can barely remember it after so long. His heart is warm and he has a new family now...

Sometimes Adam still wonders if it was worth being ripped from Heaven just to become a glorified cuddly toy to a pair of archangels, especially since the cage doesn't offer much in the way of privacy and his big brother and Nick have become quite... fond, of each other. Some things he could have lived without seeing, just saying. Not that he minds being curled up against Sam's chest like this. But some things he's seen since Nick came here and brought 'peace' (if you could call it that with the never ending bickering) are better left for pay-per-view. Not to mention how affectionate Lucifer himself could be towards his two vessels. Yeah... Adam could have done without having those images burned into his soul.

But then an invisible tendril of Michael's grace caresses against his soul, soothing, blissful, gentle and burning at the same time. And Adam forgets all else. Michael's affection isn't as in-your-face as Lucifer's. It's whispered like an intimate secret rather than wrapped in fanfare. On the other side of the embrace bracketing the humans, Lucifer goes still. He relaxes and the sudden calm within him is palpable even to Adam, telling him that Michael's sent out a tendril of his grace to caress Lucifer too.

This isn't hell, this is _Elysium_.


End file.
